LA'S REAL HOUSING CRISIS AND THE MAYORAL CANDIDATES

posted by Gloria Ohland | 245mp
February 12, 2013

Raphael Bostic from USC and Tony Salazar, a housing developer who heads up McCormack Baron Salazar's West Coast operations, summed up LA's housing crisis last week in the LA Times, pointing out that 1) 63% of LA residents are renters, and 2) rents have increased 30 percent in the city over the last 20 years, while 3) renter incomes have decreased by 6%, and 4) there's an inadequate supply of affordable rental units.

And all of that = there are only 37 units available and affordable for every 100 would-be renters at the average renter income level. Moreover, the foreclosure crisis has exacerbated the problem instead of relieving it as those who lost their homes through foreclosure are also competing for the short supply of units, causing an even tighter rental market and upward pressure on rents.

It's against this backdrop, Bostic and Salazar point out, that a new mayor will take office. And he or she must understand that adequate affordable housing = regional prosperity because unless there is a skilled labor force living in Los Angeles employers will go somewhere else. READ MORE . . .